A Smuggler's Prize
by YoungCub93
Summary: As the Clone Wars ends and the blockades are lifted in the wake of the new Galactic Empire, a young merchant turned smuggler could never have suspected her cargo to be an enemy of the Republic, a Jedi. Now that the hunt for the remaining Jedi is on, will she turn in her prize or risk it all to help the Light Side of the Force?
1. Chapter 1

1

Surviving in the Outer Rim Territories was a hard enough life during peacetime let alone being ravaged by the Clone Wars. The Clone Wars had raged across the Galaxy for the worst part of three years, bringing death and destruction in its wake. Many of the Outer Rim Territories had joined with the Separatists in favour of the Republic. This was due to the gloriously rich Republic showing no interest in the poor Outer Rim worlds, continually allowing them to be ruled by decadence and sin. The Outer Rim was a constant danger, filled with crime lords, pirates and raiders. Many of the planets where under the control of crime syndicates such as the Black Sun or the Hutts, but while the organisations flourished and prospered the planets and the peoples did not. Slavers, thieves and smugglers spread across the Outer parts of the galaxy like wildfire making it impossible to earn a decent living as an honest merchant.

The Clone Wars hit hard and fast across the Galaxy, as if the idea of war had been on the tongues of the Senate for years. With battles between the Separatist battle droids and Republic clones tearing planets, people and families apart. Three years later and billions dead the Clone Wars came to an abrupt end. The battle droids of the Separatist forces were deactivated; the Republic and its clone troopers had won and from its ashes arose the first Galactic Empire. A Galactic Empire of peace and prosperity with former-Chancellor-now-Emperor, Sheev Palpatine, at its helm. With the end of the war and the blockades being lifted, it finally looked like an honest merchant could make a decent living.

Erin Vallus wasn't an honest merchant, not like her father. The Clone Wars had made villains from the best of people; it became the only way to survive the Outer Rim Territories, every man woman and child for themselves. Erin was a smuggler, and the Clone Wars had taught her to be a damn good one. She would smuggle any number of things for the right price, as long as it didn't aid the war effort. She wanted nothing to do with the Clone Wars as far as she could help it. The raising of Off-World blockades had ruined her father's business at the start of the war, and finished it off altogether when the war broke out in the Outer Territories. She had been forced to become a smuggler in order to survive; otherwise she might have become a slave or worse. Twi'lek girls were a delicacy for slavers and crime lords. During the first year of the war both Separatist and Republic forces had boarded her ship on numerous occasions, each handing out their own punishments, allowing her to become an escape artist of sorts. By the third year she had made a name for herself among the Black Sun and Hutt organisations, a name for her and her ship, the Deadhand.

There was a shockwave of fear and delight that hit the Galaxy when the news broke that the war was over and the Galactic Empire was born. Some systems held parties in the streets while others hid themselves away as if expecting an oncoming storm. For Erin, the end of the war meant the end of the blockades, no more smuggling until the Empire's hand reached the Outer Rim. She could become the honest merchant that her father had wanted her to be. She thought of her father for the first time in a long time, while she sat in the cantina watching the HoloNet of the news of the end of the Clone Wars. Her mind had wandered to old scars by the time the newscaster had announced the formation of the Empire and what it could mean for the people of the Republic. Old wounds had a penchant for occasionally opening and replaying in her head. A familiar sound brought her back to reality, the electronic voice that would so often say 'Miss Vallus'. He, she called him a he, would repeat her name until she looked at him.

'Miss Vallus… Miss Vallus… Miss-' She turned to face the droid sat across the HoloNet feed and table to her. 'What does this mean for us? Are we no longer smugglers?' He asked, she could sense a tone of worry in his fuzzy voice. The droid, much taller than her, was sat hunched over watching the HoloNet feed of the Galactic Empire. Tee, and abbreviation of his droid designation number, was a T-Series tactical droid that she found and had reprogrammed. Erin had found the Separatist droid in a scrap pile of debris from a battle on Ryloth during a smuggling mission. She had found him at the perfect time too, as her previous droid had taken a turn for the worst after a clone trooper blaster shot burned through its head, although she had so far failed to mention this to Tee. Tee had been taken to a good friend of Erin, a droid mechanic who had once worked for the Baktoid droid company, the company that had supplied the Separatists with their droid army. The mechanic, a Besalisk Separatist deserter who went by the codename Fingers, rebuilt and reprogrammed Tee out of parts of other droids meaning that he didn't look exactly like a T-Series which was good for Erin's smuggling business. There would have been nothing worse that a Separatist blockade boarding party finding a reprogrammed Separatist droid on board her ship. The same could be said of a Republic boarding party too, as the droids were now illegal.

'Tee, it's not been five minutes since the announcement, how in the hell should I know?' She responded. The droid didn't so much as move. 'Besides, you hate smuggling anyway.'

'I do not hate anything Miss Vallus. I'm not programmed to hate. I simply advise you on the probabilities and likelihood of capture.' The droid rebutted with a slight touch of sarcasm. He sat upright, the long grey cloak that covered him from the prying eyes of Separatist and Republic spies fell over his mechanical shoulder joint. 'Besides, I was under the impression that we only smuggled due to the blockades being in place. With them gone it's probable that this Galactic Empire will put a new system in place after it has swallowed up the Outer Rim.'

'Tee, can we not talk about this here. As much as I like this place, I wouldn't trust it anymore than a starving Wampa.' She glanced around the bar briefly, on the look out for any number of eyes flashing her way. She had always been a fan of Cloud City, a vast city that floated in the skies above the planet Bespin. Breathable air, dense streets, busy cantinas; a perfect place to be lost. Cloud City had harboured her many times without knowing, as it was a world that no affiliation with the Separatists or the Republic. With an influx of refugees and spies, it's not to say the Clone Wars hadn't affected it, but Bespin had remained neutral.

'Noted Miss Vallus. Do we know anything about this contact of yours?' Tee poked. He always become nervous when they were contacted anonymously for a smuggling run, after all the droids primary function was as a tactician. He couldn't help but run the numbers to work out the probability of this action or that. She lifted her feet from the table and brought them down to the floor, reaching across to switch off the HoloNet. She leaned in close to the droid and stared him dead in his scarred face.

'Not. A. Thing.' She over-emphasised every word, as she knew it would mess with the droid. Tee hunched back over and she could almost see the mechanical whirring of him assessing the situation. She sat back against the seat of the booth and chuckled to herself. 'How's that for you?'

Tee took a few moments of silence while he assessed the best answer for her. Due to his reprogramming he had developed a few droid character flaws, the main one being that he almost had no filter as to what he would say. The droid essentially had a mind of his own, but he had begun to get wise to what to say and what not to say to the young Twi'lek.

'Very clever Miss.' He deadpanned. Erin placed her feet back on the table. Today was the perfect day for smuggling. In the wake of the end of the Clone Wars there would be celebrations everywhere and officials would be busy with the rise of the Empire and what it meant for their systems. This job would probably be the easiest they've ever had. She looked around the bar at the people of Bespin rejoicing. For them the end of the war meant the end of the refugee problem Cloud City had endured. In that slight moment, the thought of all the refugees who had lost friends and family to the Clone Wars flashed through her mind. Tee noticed the brief sadness on his masters face, like he had many times before, but he had gotten wise to asking about it.

Through the cheer and commotion in the bar a cloaked figure appeared at their booth. The figure had a hooded robe over the body and obscuring half of the face. Erin could just make out a rugged but youthful jaw of the man under the cloak. Tee stood to his feet in preparation of imminent danger, the droid towered over the cloaked figure menacingly.

'Are you Vallus?' The figure asked. His voice was nervous and through it Erin could tell he was no older than her. She gauged him for a moment before signalling with her hand for Tee to sit down. The droid did as was motioned but kept a close watch on the figure; Erin could sense he had his cold metallic grip on the handle of his blaster.

'What do you need, kid?' She was definitely no older than he was, but she needed to lay the ground rules, she was the expert and he needed her services. He reached a hand into his cloak; Tee leapt up from his seat again, and the boy removed a credit chip. Tee slowly sat back down.

'Please, no sudden movements.' He asked the mysterious figure. 'We wouldn't want an accident on such a special day.' The last part slipped through his almost none existent filter. Erin shot him a look to quiet him. The boy was holding out the credit chip so she reached across and took it.

'What do you have and where does it need to go?' She asked him while gesturing for the figure to take a seat in the booth next to Tee. The robot moved up slightly as the boy nervously clambered in.

'I am the cargo. I need the fastest and best smuggler and I've been pointed in your direction.' This was an unusual request for Erin, she hadn't been asked to smuggle people before. Instantly she had a whole mess of questions. Who was this boy? What trouble was he in? How much trouble would he make for her? How big was his wallet? Was it a joke or… a set up?

'You want me to smuggle you?' She asked cautiously.

'Miss Vallus, if I may-'

'No you may not.' She cut the droid off short before he proceeded to tell her his probability outcomes. 'And why would I be smuggling you? Where to?'

'I can pay more if no questions are asked.' The boy rehearsed. 'How much?' Erin thought for a moment. She could make a real killing from this boy, smuggle him off planet on the easiest day of the year and drop him wherever he needs to be.

'Let's see, you are paying for my services, which are the best by the way, and an unusual cargo… call it 15,000 credits.' Erin summed up. If the boy could pay she would take the job, Tee would have to suck it up.

'No questions asked and I'll give you 12,000 now and 8,000 when the job is done.' The boy sounded like he was gaining more confidence. 'You'll find 12,000 on that chip I passed your way.'

Erin fondled with the chip in her gloved hand. She had 12,000 credits in her hand and another 8,000 waiting for her at the boy's destination. She looked at Tee, he was already looking at her and she could see that the droid knew she was going to take the job.

'You've got a deal. Meet me at docking bay 12. We'll be waiting at the Deadhand.'

'The Deadhand? Is that your ship?' The boy asked.

'I thought we said no questions.' She answered coolly without looking up from the credit chip. The boy paused for a moment before getting up from the table, she looked up at him and saw a glimpse of his eyes, and he had a similar gaze to her – cold and broken. He bowed and left the cantina in a hurry, pushing past the drunken celebrations, and her eyes followed him to the door.

'Is it customary to bow?' Tee asked. His eyes had also followed the boy out. He turned to look at his master and noticed a glimmer of the sadness ripple across her face. 'We had best get the ship ready. Shall I meet you there, Erin?'

She looked over to him and the sadness shattered. Flipping him the credit chip she jumped up out of her seat.

'Get the ship ready, Tee. I'm getting a drink. After all, the war is over, and we are wealthy.' She winked at him and almost bounced to the bar. Tee watched her skip to the bar with fake glee and flirt with the bartender, with all that money and she still tries to get a free drink. The droid got to his feet and secured his blaster beneath the cloak, if this mysterious passenger caused them any trouble or brought Erin Vallus to any harm he would not hesitate to kill the boy. Cloak flowing behind him revealing his skeletal frame, he headed for the cantina door, the mechanical whirring of his probability factor hitting overdrive.


	2. Chapter 2

2

Commander Faust looked at his brothers-in-arms, assessing each clone face and the small tells that gave each away. They'd had no choice, he could see it in their faces that sheer belief that the Jedi were the enemies of the Republic. He knew they could see the sickness in his face as they all looked to him. He looked down at the artificial hand they'd had built for him, just like General Skywalker… He would be dead by now, his clone garrison turning on him. He thought about the other Jedi. General Kenobi. Dead. Master Yoda. Dead. General Secura. Dead. Hundreds of others all dead. All branded as enemies of the Republic, or should he say Empire now.

Faust had been charged with executing Order 66, just as the other Commanders would have been. The order to execute the Jedi Generals. How could he return to Coruscant now? He was no war hero, he was a murderer. They all were.

'Commander, what do we do now?' One of his crew looked to him for guidance. That's when he noticed his whole crew was looking to him for guidance. Their numbers had been massively reduced over the course of the last battle with the droids and even further reduced by the Jedi they shot down. He was more lost than ever.

'We return to base. Chancellor's orders.' He corrected himself. 'Emperor's orders.' Many of his men looked at him uneasily. He was uneasy himself. He couldn't face the man that had given the order to execute every Jedi in the Galaxy, but he knew that he had to. He had to tell him that Jedi Master Anha and her Padawan were dead, and that he had personally killed them. There was a low mumble from his troops. 'Emperor's orders.' He repeated before walking away from the troops and towards the pilots.

'Sir.'

'At ease men. Let's get back to the ship.' He ordered the pilots.

'Yes, sir.'

He felt the all too familiar vibration beneath his feet and the hum in his ears. Hopefully it would be for the last time. He couldn't do this any more; it had taken one day to unravel years of service to the Republic. He had shot down his General and his friend. He looked down at the artificial hand, trying to convince himself that it wasn't controlled by him, that some other had control of it and had used him to shoot down Anha. Faust played through her last moments in his mind. The look of horror as her troops turned on her and a fear to protect her Padawan when she realised what was happening. They hadn't given the killing blow though, he had. He had used his blaster rifle to blow a hole through her chest, ending the Jedi Masters life. The Padawan had fled and Faust had chased him down. Pointing his blaster at the boys face before pulling the trigger. The last thing that boy had seen was the cold hard white helmet and black lifeless visor. Under the visor was a man, a man with pure horror on his face at what he had been ordered to do. Luckily his troopers arrived after he had removed his helmet and thrown up. They found him, helmet under his arms, staring at the lifeless body of the boy he had seen grow into a man over the past year, the rain pouring around them.

'Commander, we've reached the ship.' He was brought around from his nightmares by one of the pilots. They hadn't been there. They hadn't seen the horrors he had committed. The Clone Wars had been easy to desensitise, they fought battle droids, droids with no feelings or emotions. He had gunned down a woman and a young boy, all because he had been ordered to. 'Are you alright, sir?' The trooper asked him. He looked up at the man's face, a mirror of his own but for a few scars.

'I'm all right. Patch me through to Coruscant. I need to contact the Emperor. I'll take the call in private quarters.'

'Yessir.' The trooper ran off to complete his orders. He would be making a call to Coruscant, but it wouldn't be to the Emperor. He needed to contact an old friend. An old friend with his only means of escaping from this hell. He'd make a call in preparation and after his meeting with the Emperor he would be off Coruscant and away from the Empire as fast as possible.

'Sir, it's ready for you.' He stood and followed the trooper to private quarters. 'I'll leave you here, Sir.' He saluted the trooper who responded and marched away leaving Faust alone in the private quarters. He'd have to be quick about this, if they traced his call or caught wind of his plan he'd be tried and likely executed. Rerouting the call to another Coruscant address he began to remove his armour while he waited. The transmission patched through and an old weary voice was on the other end.

'Hello? Who is this?' Said the voice. 'These are dangerous times to be calling unknown.'

'It's me.' Faust replied.

The voice paused a moment while the person on the other end tried to decipher Faust's voice.

'And why would you be calling me?' The voice asked him.

'It's time. I need out.' Faust answered.

'Well I'm afraid you are out of time, old friend. Do you know what your kind have done?' The voice became colder. 'Do you know how many they killed? Even the… Even the younglings.'

Faust froze in horror. They executed the children. All of the children were dead. How could this happen? But he had done the same; he had killed Anha and Iarruk. The thought made him sick again but he kept it down.

'I need your help. Please. I'm begging.' Faust was desperate. He couldn't stay with the Republic anymore, not after this.

'The temple is down. Ruins. It's being ransacked as we speak. I grabbed what I could. They'll be transport waiting when you get here.' The transmission ended. Faust had found his escape route; he had a way out thanks to Dex. Dex had been a friend of the Jedi and owned a diner in Coruscant. He knew more of the coming and goings of the planet then anyone else; if anyone could get Faust Off-World it would be him.

He looked down at the white Clone Trooper armour. It made him feel more ill just to look at it, especially at the dark burn across the chest piece where Anha had stood her ground. He's lucky it didn't kill him, although now he wished that it had, to stop him from committing the atrocities that followed. Faust geared up, he'd need the armour one last time, to hide the man inside. He placed his helmet on and left the private quarters.

Two troopers waited on either side of the entrance to the hull of the ship, he nodded to both as he passed and watched the familiar bone white helmets nod in succession. As he entered the hull he noted that four armed troopers where stationed with the pilots. They turned to face him as he entered and the two from outside of the room followed him in. They had flanked him. Faust was weapon less and all six troopers were armed to the teeth.

'Sir, we are going to have to ask you who you put that call out to.' One of the troopers asked him. He looked around the room for a way out. 'Sir?'

'I told you men, I needed to contact the Emperor.' Faust replied, stalling for time.

'That call reached Coruscant, but not the Emperor. Who did you contact Commander?' The trooper asked again. Faust could see no way out of this confrontation. This would be the end for him, but he wouldn't take Dex down with him, he'd fight for as long as he could. The troopers couldn't trace the call and Dex would never be found. He could continue his life on Coruscant, helping out those in need.

'Don't do this, trooper.' Faust replied. 'You don't want to do this. Just let me go and nobody gets hurt.' He efforts were pointless, he knew it and they knew it. Faust was trapped. The trooper who had spoke stepped forwards and aimed his blaster rifle at Faust's face.

'You are a traitor to the Empire.' The trooper announced. 'The Emperor will see-'

The trooper never got to finish his sentence as a blaster shot removed the side of his helmet and face. His body fell to the floor. The white armour crashing against the ship. The other troopers turned to face the direction of the blaster shot. There stood the pilot, blaster pistol shaking in his hand. Faust looked to him and acknowledged the level of loyalty he had shown to his commander before the remaining five clone troopers obliterated his body. Faust watched as his saviour was gunned down against the hull of the ship. The other pilot had left out of his seat and ran for cover. The ship would go down with all of them on it, now was the time for Faust to act, this was his escape route. More troopers arrived on the scene and began to open fire on the five that had killed the pilot. This was the perfect cover for Faust. He leapt to the control screen, grabbed the pilot's belt to secure himself and smashed his artificial fist through the viewing screen at the front of the ship. The pressure from the hole in the screen caused a vacuum, three troopers where sucked out into the atmosphere thousands of clicks above the planet. The other troopers were thrown around as they tried to secure a hold on the ship. The warning lights flashed red and orange on the control board. Faust unclipped one side of the pilot's belt and let the suction fling him through the breach in the hull, using the belt to hang out of the window. The ship had started to fall and it was precisely this that Faust had relied on. He had seen a few of these ships go down in the past and knew that the front was slightly heavier causing it to fall front on. This propelled him to the top of the ship where he could grab a hold.

Faust proceeded to climb up the falling ship towards the tail end at which point the ship began to level out, as a pilot must have taken hold of the controls in an effort to save them. Faust needed to work out where the jump packs would be in accordance of where he was on the outside of the ship. He began to climb down the side of the ship, towards the entrance bays, and break in using his fist to punch through the bay door controls. The doors opened with a whoosh allowing him to jump onto the open platform and get inside. It wouldn't be long before the troopers would notice a breach on the side of the ship and come running so he didn't have much time. Grabbing a jump pack he strapped it onto his back, he took one last look at the ships interior before leaping through the hole, the jump pack wasn't designed for these sorts of heights but it was better than nothing. Faust's only plan was to free fall and hope that he had judged the distance between the ship and the ground correctly for when to activate the propulsion of the jump pack. That's to say the pack would actually be able to stop the momentum of the fall.

As he fell through the air, grateful for the white helmet he was wearing, he felt sorry for his brothers still blindly following Palpatine. If he survived this he would find a way to help his brothers, to free them and to bring down Palpatine. Perhaps, in some way, that would make things right. Perhaps if he saved his brothers then Anha could find a way to forgive him for what he had done to her and the boy. Suddenly the ground came rushing into view; Faust spread his body to slow his speed down but he was still coming in hard. If he survived this, it was still going to hurt like hell. This drop was all about the timing, he would have to execute the jump pack at precisely the right moment to lift him from the ground before he hit it and propel him back into the air.

As the surface came into view he noticed a large rocky foundation to the left of where he was aimed. If he could push himself towards that it could give him the flat hard surface he would need to propel him. Pushing himself through the air while falling at high speeds was no easy task, with the ground coming menacingly into view waiting to swallow him up. 6. Time ticked by in head, slow and fearful, as Faust counted out loud. 8. If he missed this he would become just another stain on the planets surface. 10. Now!

Faust flipped in the air and activated the rockets of his jump pack, the thrusters burned against the rocky mountainside as Faust's armour scraped along the rock. A hot burning sensation on his left arm told him that he had done some damage, but survival instincts had taken over. The jump pack jettisoned him from the mountainside back into the air, where he smashed into another rock formation. The impact, as he had planned, smashed the thrusters on the pack causing them to let out. The jump pack had taken the brunt of the impact, sparing his back, and he now proceeded to roll down the mountainside. The speed of his roll was much faster than he anticipated and his only way of stopping was to pin his wrists and knees into the ground as it went by. The pain was immeasurable as the roll turned into a slide down the mountain, burning through the plates of his armour. He finally came to a stop at the base of the structure covered in burns, blood and dust. The casing of his artificial hand had opened up revealing the wiring inside, and the armour on his wrists and knees had all but disintegrated.

Faust lay in position for what seemed like an eternity, fear that any movement might make him fall apart. He began to check over his body. Luckily the jump pack, now smashed to pieces, had saved him from death. He scrappily got to his feet; the once white armour encasing his body was now covered red and brown, where blood and dust had mixed.

He had survived. Now he needed a weapon and a way off this planet, and he knew where to find both. The Force was with him.


End file.
